The scientists helping farmers kick the chemical habit

[superadmin]

MOUGON – In a field in western France, the small purple and white flowers quivering among tender shoots of wheat are a clue that this is not conventional single-crop farmland.

In fact, this whole area is part of scientific work to help farmers cut down on their use of pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilisers.   

"I felt that these products were dangerous," said farmer David Bonneau as he hunched over the little wildflowers – veronica and hickweed. And "the general public is asking for reductions".

One of his experimental plots is treated the standard way, with chemical weedkiller; another he weeds mechanically with a harrow whose teeth tear up the wild plants; while a third will not be treated at all.

He is part of a project involving 400 farms and around 40 villages in the Deux-Sevres region of western France, where scientists are experimenting with different techniques to cut pollution.

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